Over 2,600 people responded to Business Insider’s survey on financial TV, and question after question Bloomberg TV beat out CNBC and Fox Business News as the preferred channel among those polled.

It’s a fierce debate in financial circles. CNBC has consistently claimed the top spot, but Bloomberg TV isn’t tracked by Nielsen, the ratings pollster, so the true favorite among financial professionals and business news consumers has been unclear.

Respondents answered questions about everything from their favorite anchors, to Maria Bartiromo’s recent move to Fox Business News. They gave their opinion on which network has the best tech coverage and their favorite morning show…

But there was one crucial question that sums up the entire network battle. Bloomberg TV and CNBC are in a dead heat over who has the best guests.

If Bloomberg TV edged ahead in that department, who knows what would happen.

Even when the same guests appear on both Bloomberg TV and CNBC there’s no question where I would be watching. The politics, sociology, economics understanding and just plain old-fashioned humanity that manages to thread through the market blather puts Bloomberg lightyears ahead of the let’s-pretend-to-tolerate-working-people ethos of the competition.

I got stuck into watching Bloomberg TV behind the dearth of real news reporting from the news-as-entertainment crowd that dominates American television. There’s a bit more than that involved; but, only a sidebar to the point of this Business Insider article. You have to understand that economics grounds everything.

CNBC is dominated by ethically shriveled reactionaries like Kudlow – who provided the acronym RINO to denigrate traditional Republicans with the rise of neocon schmucks like Cheney, Bush and Wolfowitz. Fox isn’t worth recognizing as anything more than a precursor to fascism. I removed both from my DirecTV Guide.

I’ve now added AlJazeera America and the new CCTVN. We have real global news sources back again. But, the article and discussion is about financial news channels – and the fact that Bloomberg does a decent job at the broader task is simply an added benefit.

A German university apologized for any distress caused its 37,000 students when they all received emails saying they had been unenrolled.

Kim-Astrid Magister, spokeswoman for the Dresden University of Technology, said the school’s entire student body and all of its staff — 48,000 people — were mistakenly sent emails Sunday telling them they had been unenrolled from the university…

“Your logins will be locked in 12 days. This is happening because you have been unenrolled as a student, your contract is up or your guest logins are no longer valid. Please ensure you have saved any information that may be contained within these logins,” the email read.

Many students said they panicked on receiving the communication, but were comforted when fellow students told them they had also received it.

Magister said the email was the result of human error while working on a software program designed to organize staff and student data. She apologized for any confusion or distress caused by the mistake.

The Brazilian health ministry has begun a review of the medical records of 300 patients treated by a doctor suspected of killing seven terminally ill patients.

Prosecutors on Wednesday claimed Virginia Soares de Souza and her medical team administered muscle relaxing drugs to patients, then reduced their oxygen supply, causing them to die of asphyxia at the Evangelical Hospital…

Investigators are combing through 1,700 medical records of patients who died in the last seven years at the hospital, where De Souza headed the intensive care unit.

There is no specific evidence that McCotter was involved in the petition fraud, so the former congressman, who resigned in July, was not charged.

“Their motive is immaterial,” Schuette said. “They set a standard of conduct that is disgraceful.”

RTFA for all the delightful details.

It is pretty hilarious that in an electoral season characterized by Republican officials in every state trying to get senior citizens, poor people, minorities thrown off the voting rolls because they are more likely to vote for Democrats, one of the biggest election frauds in the country is perpetrated by clowns working for a Republican Congressman.

Here in New Mexico, our Secretary of State did her big – “I think there are tens of thousands of illegals registered and voting…” – and after she finished wasting tens of thousands of taxpayer dollars she discovered exactly 19 people who probably registered to vote because they thought they were eligible – but, still never had voted.

A fire at a northeast Ohio nursing home Sunday that killed one and injured six others was caused by a meth lab that had been set up in one of the resident’s rooms…The deadly blast occurred in a second floor room of the Park Haven Nursing Home in Ashtabula at around 8:30 p.m., firefighters said, sending staffers scrambling to save the home’s three dozen elderly or disabled residents.

“I was taking a break, and I looked through the window and I saw an explosion of fire,” nurse Deanna Bigley told the local Star Beacon newspaper. “There was this guy and he was engulfed in flames,” she said. “One of our residents put him out, but then the fire started up and he had to be put out again.”

Witnesses say one nurse, 28-year-old Kristi Hance — who is reportedly pregnant — returned to the blazing building several times to help residents escape. “She just kept going back in to get people,” Bigley said. “The smoke was thick and black, but she went back in to help.”

Seven people, including three residents, two non-residents, and two others, were injured in the blaze. One man died from his injuries Monday…Police didn’t identify him, and it was unclear if he lived or worked at the facility.

Ashtabula fire Chief Ron Pristera told local station WKYC television that crews found evidence of a “shake-and-bake” style meth lab in the room where the fire started. “Shake-and-bake” is a fast but highly combustible way of making meth that involves mixing the ingredients together in a single bottle or container and then shaking it, according to news reports.

In a Facebook post Monday, Hance praised her coworkers’ bravery. “I in no way acted alone!” she wrote. “Every single staff member on duty last night was completely fierce and totally heroic…We are their caretakers and that is what we are there to do.”

Kudos to the staff members who risked their lives for the people in their care. A normal instinct in a cataclysm like an explosion and fire is to get your own butt to safety.

Nursing home staff aren’t exactly the highest paid job category in the United States. But, these folks took their mandate of care seriously – with sufficient conviction to risk their own lives for the residents of the nursing home. I wish you well.

Rupert Murdoch faces revolt from his own staff…after journalists angry at the arrest of five senior colleagues accused the company of throwing them to the wolves.

The 80-year-old media mogul is due to fly into Britain this week to address workers at his Wapping plant and reassure them of his commitment to his remaining UK newspaper titles. But he is likely to receive an angry reception after five more journalists on The Sun were arrested as part of Operation Elveden – the police investigation into allegations of bribery.

The arrests early on Saturday morning were the second batch in a fortnight and sources close to the investigation have indicated that they are unlikely to be the last.

Journalists at The Sun yesterday accused the company’s Management Standards Committee (MSC), which handed a huge amount of information to detectives, of allowing a “witch-hunt” to take place.

One angry journalist said the MSC were behaving like “reptiles” in order to protect the reputation of Mr Murdoch’s parent company in the United States.

Ten senior journalists on the paper have now been arrested and bailed as detectives probe allegations that they illegally paid police officers and other public officials for information. But staff at the paper said many of the allegations were “pathetic” and related to matters many years ago where reporters had bought drinks for contacts in the pursuit of legitimate stories…

It has also now emerged that the Sun’s parent company News Corp could face an investigation by officials under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. The law allows American companies to be fined hundreds of millions of dollars for illegal activities overseas.

It would be pleasant change in political practices on the part of governments in both the US and UK to offer Murdoch something more than a powder puff spank on his poo-poo. He probably owns more politicians in the British Parliament than Exxon-Mobil does in the US Congress.

Extremely detailed knock-off Apple retail stores, complete with blue t-shirt-wearing employees claiming to work for the company, have been discovered in China.

According to the blog BirdAbroad, several counterfeit Apple stores have popped up in Kunming, China. One such location featured a winding staircase and employees in t-shirts with Apple logos and name tags.

“The name tags around the necks of the friendly salespeople didn’t actually have names on them – just an Apple logo and the anonymous designation “Staff,”” the report read.

The author called the store “the best ripoff store” she had ever seen, though there were several giveaways, such as the poor quality of the staircase and a sub-par paint job. Also, the stores do not appear to have upgraded to Apple’s Retail 2.0 layout that uses iPads as “smart signs.”

According to her, the employees at the store “all genuinely think they work for Apple.” After store security guards and employees prohibited her from taking photos, the author hinted that she and her husband were “two American Apple employees visiting China and checking out the local stores” and were then allowed to photograph the store.

The woman who told President Barack Obama that she was “exhausted” from defending him and his economic policies and waiting for the change she expected after voting for him has another reason to be put out: She’s lost her job.

Velma Hart, the chief financial officer for AmVets, a veteran services organization based in Maryland, said Monday in an interview with CNBC that she was laid off as part of the nonprofit’s effort to cut expenses.

“I want to focus on the positive and be optimistic,” said Hart, who lives in Upper Marlboro, Md. “And assume that somehow things will work out, that there’s an opportunity out there with Velma’s name on it that’s right around the corner.”

Am Vets executive director Jim King told The Washington Post that the nonprofit was looking for ways to survive financially.

“It’s not anything she did,” King told the Post for a story that appeared online Monday. “She got bit by the same snake that has bit a lot of people. It was a move to cut our bottom line…”

Hart told CNBC that she still supports Obama and noted that the economy is improving, though she finds the prospect of unemployment “scary.”

I watched her on TV, this morning. She’s well aware from the work that AmVets does that it’s no longer unusual for someone to be out of work during this Great Recession for a couple of years.

Fortunately, she’s well-enough qualified that I hope she’ll be able to find a new job – or things will turn around enough for AmVets to bring her back.

Detroit school board President Otis Mathis admitted Friday to engaging in “inappropriate actions” but tried to take back his resignation after he was accused of fondling himself during a meeting with the district superintendent…

He said medical issues may have contributed to the incident. “I need to pursue treatment. … I want to make sure that what happened doesn’t ever happen again…

“It’s over. He’s done. We have more important business to handle,” said Carla Scott, a member of the Detroit Public Schools Board of Education. “We can’t afford a circus.”

DPS police were investigating allegations by Superintendent Teresa Gueyser that during a meeting Wednesday, Mathis touched himself for 20 minutes, then unzipped his pants.

Gueyser, in a memo to the board, said she ended the meeting. “I told him that there was no reason for us to continue the meeting with that behavior,” she said…

Seems reasonable to me. I can think of a few places where such behavior might not be surprising; but, none of them include meetings of school board staff.